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The 247Sports Composite team rankings have IU pegged at No. 16 right now, and I would imagine this class will be solidly top 20 by the end. It adds a lot of guard depth, a need considering what Indiana loses, and it will provide the Hoosiers with another solid post player. Will there be more to come in the spring? We'll see.

@PatrickJMaley asks: "Do you ever recall the Big Ten being this weak? Do you think its lack of strength will hurt conference teams in March?"

Well, weak is a relative term. The Big Ten has five teams currently ranked in KenPom's top 25 nationally, joint-highest with the ACC and the Big 12. The Pac-12, by comparison, has just three. The SEC has only one, Texas A&M.

The better way to describe the Big Ten might be a little bit upside down. Iowa is the highest-ranked of those five, at No. 2. Indiana is No. 24, despite the national impression – not an unfair one, probably – that the Hoosiers haven't proven much yet. One of those five is Michigan State, which lost at home to Nebraska on Wednesday and already has four conference defeats. But what happens if Iowa goes 16-2 in the conference, Maryland goes 15-3 and Indiana goes 14-4? None of that is totally implausible, and that's a pretty strong top three.

It's a weird league, no doubt. And the bottom of the conference is problematic, with Minnesota, Rutgers, et al not doing any NCAA tournament hopefuls much good in terms of schedule strength. But I don't know that we can call the Big Ten weak at the top for at least the next month.

@lawguyNA asks: "If you were predicting the top three finishers in the Big Ten at the end of regular season, who would you choose, and their records?​"

I would probably lean toward Iowa, then Maryland, then either Indiana or Purdue.

Michigan State has so much catching up to do at this point, with some pretty tough games left. Indiana's schedule is backloaded, but if you look at Purdue's, it's not much more kind. Still, I lean toward the Boilermakers at No. 3, at least for the time being.

Records are trickier. Here's the best I've got:

Iowa: 15-3

Maryland: 15-3

Purdue: 12-6

Indiana: 12-6

I'm probably a little bit bullish on Maryland there. Iowa going 16-2 is entirely feasible at this point. Anyway, there you go.

@rickytickytravy asks: "At this moment in time, should Indiana fans expect to see all key players (minus Yogi) back for next season?"

Not necessarily. First of all, I wouldn't discount the loss of Nick Zeisloft and Max Bielfeldt, two veteran reserves who provide a good locker room presence and have already saved IU in the conference with strong performances at Rutgers and Minnesota. Ferrell is the linchpin, but he's not alone.

As for underclassmen, Troy Williams is consistently landing in the first-round range in mock drafts, and Thomas Bryant is starting to drift into the same category. If Indiana's season continues at its current pace and both players progress, I wouldn't count out the possibility of tough pro decisions.

The new NBA draft combine rules might benefit one or both players. But we're still a ways away from that point.

@ysaric asks: "Bryant is improving. If he declares, is next year's frontcourt going to be like last year's? Should we be worried?"

Yes, of course. Bryant is a McDonald's All American forward who, as you rightly point out, is growing quickly into the college game at the perfect time for Indiana. And while IU was able to land Bryant in the spring period, that doesn't just happen every year.

Now, I wouldn't cast it as entirely gloomy. I've been impressed with Juwan Morgan and OG Anunoby. De'Ron Davis is coming in. Indiana is still firmly in the mix with Thon Maker (though I wouldn't make any assumptions there).

But if the Hoosiers lose Bryant, they lose a potent post player whose energy and attitude are, according to his teammates and coaches, as irreplaceable as they are infectious.

Jannson Engleman knows it's never too early for spring: "Pitchers and catchers report in like, what, a month? So that has me thinking about #IUBASE. What is your take on this year's team? Is the postseason a possibility?"

Always good to end on baseball, especially fresh from a January trip to Minneapolis.

Jake Kelzer's return was a big boost, as was seeing Kyle Hart pitch the way he did in the regional. If those two give you a solid 1-2 weekend punch, with the talent IU retains elsewhere on staff, plus what it brings in, I like the pitching setup.

The Hoosiers will need players like Craig Dedelow and Logan Sowers to take steps forward, steps that I think both are capable of, and the lineup should be bolstered by a few new faces, including Alex Krupa.

Without seeing more of this team up close, I can't make a declarative statement either way on a return to the NCAA tournament. But there's a strong sense of optimism around the program, optimism that is, in my opinion, completely understandable.

MUSIC OF THE WEEK

Story time, sorry. When I was 15, my family took a two-week summer trip out west, during which I wore out a copy of "Hell Freezes Over," the Eagles' live album, in the back seat of our Mercury.

Like a lot of people, Glenn Frey's death this week caught me by surprise. And it took me back to that trip, the long drives through western Texas and northern New Mexico, when we got lost in Utah and stumbled into Zion National Park, to this day one of the three most beautiful places I've visited.

So many of those songs have stuck with me through the years, none more so than one outside the Eagles' mainstream catalogue. "The Last Resort" is a beautiful, tragic song that Don Henley describes in the video below as being "about how the West was lost." It's a long lament of humanity's capacity for destroying the natural beauty it finds, and it's how we'll close the mailbag this week.